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Game 51: Fun While It Lasted

Posted Jan 26, 2014
by Shawn Mitchell
| 0 comments

Sergei Bobrovsky sprung three leaks, the Blue Jackets power play sprung two leaks and the Buffalo Sabres sprung up from the bottom of the NHL standings and brought down the sky-high Jackets tonight in Nationwide Arena.

The last-place Sabres scored twice while shorthanded, twice at even strength and once into an empty net. They chased Bobrovsky after three goals and 10 shots. They won, 5-2. Buffalo (14-29-7) ended a five-game losing streak and the Jackets’ franchise-record winning streak at eight games in front of 16,272.

It was weird and a tad worrisome, if only because the Jackets weren’t particularly bad in this one. They spent long stretches in the Sabres zone. They pumped out 92 shot attempts, of which 36 were stopped by Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. Thirty of those attempts were blocked by the skaters in front of him. Twenty-four were off the mark.

In any case, Miller was superb. Bobrovsky was far from it. He was replaced by Curtis McElhinney after allowing three goals on 10 shots in the first 23:28. Bobrovsky entered the game with a 9-0 record, 1.80 goals-against average and .940 save percentage in his previous nine starts.

But Bob’s glove failed him on short-handed goals scored by Marcus Foligno (from the high slot) and Christian Erhoff (from 60 feet), and he was befuddled by the excuse-me backhander of Matt Ellis staked the Sabres to a 1-0 lead just 2:21 into the first period.

“You don’t expect those pucks to go in,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “Our team needed to better and our goalie needed to be better. It wasn’t just Bob and it wasn’t just our (skaters).”

The Jackets power play, as Richards put it, was “minus-2.” It was 0 of 4 after scoring at least one goal in the previous five games, 7 of 22 (32 percent). It also gave up two shorties for the 10th time in franchise history.

Sabres defenseman Erhoff pounced on a puck somehow left loose in the defensive zone and potted a 60-footer with 30 seconds remaining in the first period. (“Communication error,” Jackets center Mark Letestu said.) Shortie #1.

Marcus Foligno, brother of Nick, beat Bob’s glove from the high slot, off the rush, for the first short-handed goal of his career. It gave Buffalo a 3-1 lead at 3:28 of the second. Shortie #2.

Sabres captain Steve Ott buried a rebound to make it 4-1 at 3:51 of the third. Letestu did the same to cut it to 4-2 at 5:21. It was the second goal produced by the game effort of the Jackets fourth line – Derek MacKenzie finished a give-and-go with Ryan Murray to tied it at 1 in the first – but the Jackets solved Miller only twice.

“We had some mental lapses,” Letestu said. “That first one, it was just a communication error. The power play has to be much better. That was probably the difference. Digging out of holes, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, it’s tough to do in this league.”

Cody Hodgson scored into an empty net to ice the win with 1:51 remaining in regulation.

“I thought the want and the will was there,” said Richards. “We just needed to be a little bit sharper. Give Buffalo credit. They blocked shots. They forced us to miss the net. Their goalie was good. But we could have been sharper in certain areas.”

The Jackets could have had a full complement of players, too, had they been carrying more than the minimum of six defensemen. They played with only five.

David Savard was scratched because of illness. His intended replacement, Cody Goloubef, was recalled from minor-league Springfield this morning but travel delays kept him from arriving to the rink in time to play.

Cody Bass, recalled from Springfield on Thursday, dressed as a 13th forward, and the Jackets were able to rotate their defensemen with some regularity. James Wisniewski played a game-high 27:29.

“It was some adversity for our five defensemen, but I thought as far as territorial play we did a good job,” Richards said. “We spent a lot of time in their zone, which should have been a little easier for our defenseman, but that’s still hard when you’re going to play 60 minutes with five guys.”

Side dishes

--Bass played a total of four shifts in his first game for the Jackets since the 2011-12 season. He fought Zenon Konopka in the first period. He spent five minutes in the box and 2:43 on the ice. He was reassigned to Springfield after the game.

--The fight was just the Jackets’ third in the past 15 games.

--Erhoff’s quickie stat line: 1 goal, 2 assists, plus-4.

--Bobrovsky had not been pulled for non-injury reasons since Nov. 19, when he allowed four goals on 18 shots in a 7-0 loss at Edmonton that dropped the Jackets (26-21-4) to 7-11-3. Seems like eons ago.

--The Jackets remain in the third place in the Metropolitan Division. No ground lost tonight. The second-place New York Rangers were idle, although they’ll play on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils in Yankee Stadium. The Jackets, meanwhile, will report to the rink in the morning for what will likely be an optional skate before they head to Carolina for a game in Raleigh on Monday.

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